Unwanted line bug/Program draws an extra line

[Telstar]

Hello everyone,

 

I have an issue that I managed to resolve (sort of) but I still wanted to post it here in hopes of a) shining some light on it so that it may get properly fixed in the future and b) in case someone has the same problem.

 

The issue: when I draw an arc a second (thinner) line gets drawn that connects the starting and end points of the arc, creating a closed half-circle.

I have made a video and slowed it down to maybe determine what goes on during the drawing process. In the video the cursor appears to temporarily jump to the starting point (after I draw the line) without my input. It then jumps back to where I am pointing the cursor. I am not sure why this is happening.

 

Now about my laptop: I own a Surface Pro 7; I’m on Windows 10 20H2 with the OS build being 19042.1526. Not sure how relevant any of that is since this problem has existed ever since I purchased the laptop.

I have used Opentoonz throughout the years and have tried different versions (1.5.0 and 1.6.0) and my double-line-issue never went away.

Recently (V1.7.1) I discovered the option of turning on Windows Ink in the Preferences tab.

I did that but it changed nothing. I then came across someone having a somewhat similar issue and their solution had been turning off Windows Ink entirely.

I looked up tutorials on how to do just that but wasn’t able to do it, so I gave up.

 

Today, however, I decided to try something else.

I thought perhaps a different Version might work better.

So I started with the Nightly Build 1.7.1. That did not work because I kept getting the 0xc000007b error.

I found a post on this forum that recommended trying the Morevna Versions.

I installed the 1.4.0 32-Bit Version which was rather slow and crashed when I tried to open the Raster tab for the brush.

Then I tried the 64-Bit Version. It crashed immediately after starting up so I was not able to test anything. 

 

Then I turned to the older Versions of regular Opentooz.

1.4.0 acted the same as the Morevna 64-Bit Version.

1.5.0 worked fine but had the double-line issue.

1.6.0 also had the issue but after turning on Windows Ink it disappeared.

1.7.0, same as 1.7.1, had the issue and turning on Windows ink did nothing.

 

TL;DR V1.6.0, with Windows Ink turned on, solves the problem.

 

It sucks that the newer Versions do not.  

Now, 1.6.0 is thankfully only a bit older, but if future Versions also continue to act like 1.7.1 does, then that might become a problem. Of course I have no clue what change made 1.6.0 different to 1.7.0 and 1.7.1 in this regard but I hope someone who works on the program is able to find it and fix this.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope this was of some use to those who face the same issue.

 

[Telstar]

Okay update, so the program works smoothly and all, however, when clicking on the frames the program freezes and crashes.

I am at my wit's end.

[OneWatt]

Sounds incredibly frustrating. I note that you've been testing on both OpenToonz and Morevna with the results reported above. Just curious as to whether you've tried the Tahoma2D fork?  

[Rodney]

Nothing against the Morevna Edition but it is over 4 years old.

As such... you'll be missing out on a whole lot moving to it.

Issues with current releases have largely been addressed via workarounds which are expected to be fully resolved with the v1.8 release which is still a month or so away.

RE:  I kept getting the 0xc000007b error.

This has been reported rather often and does have a workaround.

It most likely is a nasty regression that replaces a 32bit DLL file with a 64bit version.

That file can be updated or a quick rename of file or directory can be done for a quick fix.

General steps for the workaround from another report:

You likely have the problem with t32bitsrv.exe
Current nightly builds have a bad file and that still needs to be addressed.
In the meantime you can safely rename the "srv" directory or the "t32bitsrv.exe" file inside that directory.
That is only used for legacy .MOV format which is now handled by FFMPEG.
There are other ways to resolve that as well but that is perhaps the quickest.

If you don't have a "srv" directory in C:\Program Files\Opentoonz... we are looking at a different problem.

[Rodney]

I'll add that the double line/closing shape problem is something that I haven't seen in years.

That suggests to me the use of an older version of Opentoonz.

It is truly unfortunate that the current nightly releases have the build problem as that very likely would have resolved your problem and life would be oh so good again.

We'll get there!

[Rodney]

In almost all cases Windows users will want to have Windows Ink turned off.

This may change in the future as Opentoonz moves to Qt 6.0 as that should resolve issues between WinInk and WinTab... but for now... ideally WinInk is turned off.

[Rodney]

Apologies for the spamming of multiple messages.

We use to be able to edit these posts but appear to have lost that option.

The Tahoma2D fork was mentioned and that may be a very valid option.

John (manongjohn) is also leaning forward trying to move the code toward Qt 6.0 which potentially will solve many problems.

Well worth checking out especially as it has a portable release which doesn't need to be installed and can run side by side with installed versions of Opentoonz/Tahoma2D.

[ManongJohn]

This may seem very odd, but try downloading and installing WinTab drivers.  Then enable the Qt WinInk in OT.

[Telstar]

Hello again :]

First off, I wanted to thank everyone here for responding so quickly! I really did not expect that so I’m glad I decided to ask for help.

Now, first I tried out Rodney’s suggestion of renaming the srv folder of the nightly build. After that the program started up just fine but unfortunately the line-problem occured when drawing in it, regardless of whether I had WinInk turned off or not.

Then, as OneWatt suggested, I tried my luck with Tahoma2D V1.4.2. So far it seems all good. It hasn’t crashed yet and I haven’t encountered the line-problem. Though I did notice that the pressure sensitivity was not working. I enabled WinInk just to check and while I had pressure sensitivity, I also had the line-problem.

Next I tried installing Wintab (Wintab_x64_1.0.0.20 specifically) and that actually brought back the pressure sensitivity! Thank you, ManongJohn!

(Also I reinstalled Opentoonz to see if Wintab would make a difference—it did not)

I’ve tested drawing in Tahoma2D and I’d say it all works as intended. Sure, there is some lag, and when I draw lines very quickly they turn into straight lines regardless of my pen’s movement. But oh well, it’s better than it was.

Unless there is some kind of way to fix that, I would say my issue has been resolved.

Again, many thanks!

[OneWatt]

Sounds like you've made superb progress given your update above. Concerning the issue of quickly drawn (curved?) lines turning into straight lines, may I assume you've tried various setting of the "accuracy" and/or "smoothness" parameters? 

[Telstar]

Well, I've been drawing in raster layers—I don't think there is a smoothness option there? I did play around with the hardness param but it didn't make much of a difference.
In the vector layers, after adjusting the smoothness and accuracy, the lines came out fine.
I will say that while curved lines are affected by the "lag", I was actually talking about drawing straight lines.
When I draw them the program either draws a dot at the starting point and stops or it draws the line but it ends up looking like I used the ruler tool (which isn't bad per se but it's just an unexpected behaviour when compared to other art programs that I use; I assume the difference arises from the fact that they use WinInk and Tahoma2D uses Wintab).

But it's alright. I'm just glad I don't have to needlessly press the undo button after drawing a curved line.

[OneWatt]

To clarify: Vectors have both accuracy and smoothness. (Toon) Rasters also have smoothness (no accuracy).

A high smoothness setting on raster will definitely slow down the apparent drawing responsiveness and reduce the twists/curves of a line.

If you're not aware of the smoothness parameter on the (toon) raster level, perhaps it's set quite high and you haven't spotted this yet?